Equal Pay Day symbolizes how far into the year women will have to work in order to earn the same amount of pay that men earned the previous year. Since 1996, this day has served to raise public awareness of the gender pay gap between women and men. In recent years, the disparity has been further analyzed, and there are now Equal Pay Days for women of different ethnicities as well as the day for all women. White women will earn the same amount as men in 2017 did on April 17, 2018.